Milorganite warning

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Alan_L
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Milorganite warning

Post by Alan_L »

As mentioned in other posts, I've been using Milorganite on my groves. As far as organics go it's relatively cheap, plus it contains iron, which other people get using Ironite.

One word of warning: some animals love the smell of Milorganite. I think it's a raccoon that's been digging up my potted plants the last several nights in a row. My guess was it smelled the Milorganite, so I put out a small pile of it on my driveway. Next morning it was gone, so I assume it was eaten. I was hoping that would teach the critter that what it smells is not something good to eat, but I guess the stuff is tasty because he dug again the next night.

I haven't had any holes dug where I've used this on in-ground bamboo, except one that was planted in very loose soil and was right next to a large potted division -- so the digging frenzy in that pot may have carried over. I did have a couple of other freshly-planted plants dug up (not bamboos) where I used Milorganite in the holes.

The stuff does smell pretty good to me, but I'm not going to do a taste test. :D
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needmore
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by needmore »

Alan, if you search on-line you'll find that many folks use it as a deer repellent. In fact, I just started experimenting with it for that purpose. In a week a doe ate all of my hostas and daylilies that had just been sprayed with the garlic/hot sauce/dish soap mix, plus she climbed into my lily pond and destroyed some of the water plants as well. Two nights in a row she attacked the pond and I can't really spray water lilies with deer repellent so I put out a bunch of Milorganite and blocked here usual path with my car. After multiple nights of attacks I've had none since I started this strategy. My guess is that it is the car more than the Milorg as I had already used it some before the attack, I'd guess that some deer smell the human and stay back but my deer ignore humans and come on in tight, but good to have to try out in the future.

Interestingly, it was obvious that she had a favorite water lily and had almost totally eaten it all so I pulled that pot out of the pond and put it on the ground where she enters the area. Then I dumped an impressive amount of the garlic/soap/hot sauce mix on the remaining foliage - totally soaked it to the extreme. The next morning it was all gone, not a stem left. That following night was the first night she didn't show up so maybe an upset tummy along with the car and Milorg was the cure?

And I am a little concerned that you like the smell of Milorganite???????? :shock: :shock:
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
Alan_L
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Alan_L »

I was going to mention that it is reported to have some deer-repellent qualities too (but only during times of abundant food) so glad you did.

I also like the smell of fresh Plant-tone. :drunken:
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by kudzu9 »

Brad-
I suspect you have a pretty good size property, but, if you are trying to protect some smaller, strategic areas, I have found a solution that works for me, and might for you. A couple of years ago a family of deer, displaced by a housing development about 1/2 mile away, discovered my yard. In a couple of nights they had substantially denuded a dozen fruit and ornamental trees of leaves and inflicted substantial damage to the tree branches by standing on their hind legs and then crashing down to break the limbs for easier munching. I did a lot of searching on the Internet for deer repellents and other solutions. After weeding through all the usual ones (junkyard dogs on 24-hour duty) and weird ones (bars of Ivory soap hung in the trees), I finally discovered the deer scaring device known as the Scarecrow. I was skeptical, but the many reviews on Amazon were quite positive. They are basically a racheting sprinkler which is waiting to be set off by motion or infrared heat. They sit on a post above the ground and, when triggered, they blast for about 5 seconds with pulses of water and noise, then re-set. Critters of all sorts don't like these. If you only have one device, the deer can figure out an alternate route after a while. But I got several of them so that there was no way to get to my orchard without triggering one. The night I installed them, I heard them go off late at night and heard noises of the deer crashing back into the surrounding forest. Since then, I have had zero damage to my trees. The downside is that they aren't cheap (about $43 each), but they have worked great for me for 3 years now. Here is a link to the product:
http://www.amazon.com/Contech-Electroni ... 231&sr=8-1

And here is a link to one in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdYc86AA8M0
stevelau1911
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by stevelau1911 »

After applying a 36lb bag of it to a few of my groves, I've noticed that a lot of fungus grows on this stuff and it looks like there are also maggots crawling around in it which might be what attracts some wild life. I do however have a cat that roams around a a couple squirrel traps so I doubt anything will dig around here.

I also have a bottle of concentrated squirrel repellant as a backup just in case they come anyways.

BTW, has anyone ever considered using the weeds, seaweed and any organic material that can be collected in a a stream or pond for fertilizer? I think milorganite is supposed to be made from this stuff so if I bag up some of this stuff, then wouldn't it be almost the same thing as milorganite?

Here's plenty of soft fertile looking aquatic weeds which I might consider using on my bamboos. I'm just not sure if they would help out much.
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Alan_L
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Alan_L »

stevelau1911 wrote:I think milorganite is supposed to be made from this stuff...
Oh no it's not.

In 1913 the City of Milwaukee created a sewerage commission charged with the responsibility of cleaning up the waterways. That same year, a chemist in England was experimenting with the biosolids in sewage sludge. Air was allowed to bubble through wastewater for a period of time. When the air was turned off, and the mixture settled, the water was purified. This was the beginning of the activated sludge process...

Read more:
http://www.milorganite.com/about/history.cfm
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by needmore »

Alan, I didn't see any mention of heavy metals in that link, this was a problem with the product in the past and I was told that nearby Bloomington has it on a banned fertilizer list - I don't know if that is true, Bton had severe PCB issues so is sensitive I guess. As I understand it the problem was brake shavings - each time we use our brakes some metal is sheared off and rain puts it into the city's storm water system. If storm water goes into the sewerage treatment there you go. I think may municipalities are diverting storm water away from sewage treatment now.
Brad Salmon, zone 12B Kea'au, HI
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by David »

Brad-
Has your "Stannk" resistant deer returned? Maybe it killed her or gave her such a belly ache that she learned her lesson. You may have to replace the garlic with wild onion. I have never seen anything but humans eat wild onions, of course up to this point I had never heard of deer taking more than one bite of garlic. :shock:

David
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Alan_L
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Alan_L »

needmore wrote:Alan, I didn't see any mention of heavy metals in that link...
I saw it mentioned on the FAQ page:

http://www.milorganite.com/home/faqs.cfm
Mackel in DFW
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Mackel in DFW »

The laws have changed recently and millorganite and other municipal fertilizers are required to demonstrate the product is safe, but that is about all I know about it. Even ironite has been reformulated because of heavy metals, but it is not as regulated as municipal waste fertilizers.

I've stopped using ironite because greensand in side by side comparison seems to work better for micronutrients (darker green leaves). Millorganite has micronutrients that synthetics lack. I am a big fan of greensand now, and though I have used millorganite as well, I am trying lower nitrogen fertilizers, lower than even millorganite.

As stated elesewhere, I now believe the mantra about nitrogen being so important is misleading. Nitrogen is the number one fertilizer in the past becuase it is the most volatile and easily lost, but in organic form, it sticks around inside the bodies of the microflora and slowly is released and taken up again by the plant.

Regards,
Mackel in DFW
Alan_L
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Alan_L »

Greensand is kinda pricey, no? Also, it seems to be a highly "specialized" amendment. How do you know if it's needed in your soil, and how much to use?
Mackel in DFW
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Mackel in DFW »

The native greensand here in Texas is a good source of chelated iron for our alkaline soils. (Iron gets tied up chemically in alkaline soils). It's got tons of other stuff in it, but is primarily a good slow release form for iron here. Our soils are fairly rich but poorly draining and the wrong pH. I follow suggested rates, ten pounds per thousand square feet.

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Mackel in DFW
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by dudley »

i pee around everything. i even have a container i use to let pee get stale and really stank.
(as per jerry baker)after all how do animals tell each other to stay away?
seems to work as well as anything else and is free unless you include the price of the beer i make it with. :drunken:
"Plants are people just like us"
Mackel in DFW
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by Mackel in DFW »

I think Dudley is onto something, some good ole manpiss to let the rest of nature know, beware. You got a pest, you come up with a predator, or a sign of its presence. For example, there is an electronic device that let's out the sound of a hawk every so often, and by golly it scares off the lesser birds.

I think you gotta put some fear into some of these critters, and if they know what's good for them, they'll move on and go looking for some lower hanging fruit. Interesting topic. But it could be that the ingredients in beer piss act as an attractant. Beer piss is actually on the mild side, it's hangover piss that shows you mean real business, with critters. :wink:

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Mackel in DFW
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Re: Milorganite warning

Post by dudley »

damn, guess i'll have to drink more.
"Plants are people just like us"
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